Just returned from another great wine trasting, maybe one of the better in recent history, which is saying ALOT with the KWFE, IFWF, and Gotham events! I must start off by saying that if I sound politically correctr, it is not the wine talking, but fear from more retalition. I really got screamed at for comments I made here, that I thought were not so off handed, but I guess I was wrong. No one complained about my comments, more about how I made them, hence PC filter/monitor on.

Ok, with that to the side, OH MAN!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! OK, I know I am passionate, but seriopusly, this was an awesome tasting! Kudos to Isaac, Adam M, and Pinchas, Nelly, Seth, and ALL the wineries and importers who poured tons of wine to the happy customers.

I did drink the 08 wines, and a few more at the very end, but this is not wine talking, this is real excitement talking! I arrived at 5 PM, and took pictures galore of the food. Then I took pictures galore of the gorgeous facility! Then I sat and shumzed until I could taste some wine. I took pictures of any wine not glued to the table. Yossie was taking pictures as well, and between the two of us, we should be thanking Kodak for inventing the digital camera! So sad, that the folks who created the thing that would be their undoing - could not harness it and went bankrupt!

Anyway, soon enough I started at the Yarden table and started tasting. The space was lovely and a bit crowded to start, but folks figured out how to manage the process. Again kudos to the wine importers and wineries for really stepping up and being so professional - as they always do seem to be at the wine tasting I attend, but even more so tonight with so many folks in the space.

Yarden had some killer wines including the the 2008 Katzrin, (PC OFF) though some felt too hot and overly ripe to me, but overall - quite nice. (PC back on) I then went to the Dalton table where - like always, the wines were lovely! They had many wines there that I adore and would have loved to taste again, but was short on time. I powered through the area, which hurt as I love to taste their wines. The Estate and reseve shiraz wines were lovely. Next was andrew and the DRC, more on that later, when I tasted it (short hand - tasted much alike what I had at his house, soft and lovely, though decanted for a long time). Then on to the Bro Deux, new wine from Shirah, which was nice and green. LOved the Gush Cab Franc, while the Kadesh Barnea is a bit too overripe for me still, again for me, sorry.

Then I went and hunkered down at Royal's table for an hour. Gary L and Shlomo were awesome, along with the lady pouring whites. Seriuously, they had like 8 cases of wine and managed the space constraints with such professionalisim that I was really impressed, as I was with all the folks pouring wine!

YEAY the 2011 Binyamina unoaked Chard is BACK!!! So much better than the 2010 vintage, really ripe and tart and beautiful, 2011 heaven there. Same for the 2011 SB, though I was not a fan of the 2010 Netofa white, again my opinion.

The 2011 Psagot labels are different, so be sure not to look for Psagot and not the old label you are used to. PC was on there, so no flames, really, I am touchy here, I think the 2011 Chard was OK, nothing great but a bit too much oak, whiule the 2010 Castel C was showing a bit better than the Psagot, in my opinion!

OH MY GOSH! The 2009 Castel GV is filthy, awesome, fantastic, and great! Buy it and be happy!!!! The 2009 Yatir Cab is nice and controlled, but a bit more green than I would have expected. The 2009 Forest was equally green, if not a bit more and lovely as well.

Quick shift to the Yarden table for some 2001 Merlot, from a Magnum bottle, a bit over ripe, and wow were the tannins still searing! Love the chance to see waht a magnum really does to a wine! Then on to the 2008 Katzrin, WOW! WOW! WOW! Need more? Think of a chocolate covered herb encrusted blackberry and cassis joyland! It was rich and tannic and beautiful!

Back to Royal, 2007 Ytair red, so-so to me, nice but no wow factor here, again in my opinion (IMHO). The 2009 Alexander Reserve Cabernet was lovely, seek it out worth the ffort. The 2009 Binyamina Syrah, Odem Choshen was OK, not as awesome as the 2006 oo 2008 (in Israel), but nice, IMHO. WOW On the Alexander the great! WOW! More? Green and luscious, with a controlled hand on the ripe fruit, only a hint of raisin, and controlled oak! The wine is massive and brooding with lovely attacking tannins, layers of concentrated fruit and crazy and long green and mineral notes!

The 2007 Cave was there, thanks to Shlomo, so I could not pass it up. Tasted like it did at Gotham earlier this year, lovely with nice tannins. Another surprise was the 2009 Tzuba Metzuda! An early release for this wine, but thanks! WHAT A JOY! Yeah yeah, I like blue fruited wine and this was a shocker, did not see the back label, but took a picture, so I will need to look at it later. The mouth is filled with blue and black fruit, mouth searing tannin, loads of concentrated and rich fruit, along with a finish to die for!

The 2010 Psagot CF was lovely, get some, enough said, green and red monster with great mineral! Ran to the Odem mountain table to see if there was any limited, all out, but I tried a lovely 2007 Odem Merlot, Reserve. Another green and herbaceous joy, nice fruit, with good extraction and lots of good fruit.

From there - back to the other side of the room to re-taste through all Recanati wines! Yep, they were MUCH better thanm the previous night! This time the wines showed true, with nice fruit and concentration, not matching the 2009 wines, but who cares, these were lovely and I am man enough to say they showed better tonight.

The 2009 rercanati reserve cab and merlot were lovely, the merlot was green and blaqck while the cab was black and aggressive, with nice green and mineral notes. Then to the three Med wines (Syrah/Viongier, PSZ, Carignan), they tasted so much better than on Thursday! Rich and unctuous with blue and black fruit, along with roasted meat, spices, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, etc. They were really nice, though a bit less concentrated and assaulting than the 2009, but really nice.

Then the 2010 Domaine Netofa red and the 2009 Galil Cab/Shiraz late into the night, but blueberry again, along with rsp, crushed herb, mineral, graphite, cedar, and green notes, Quote a wine. The Galil was blueberry as well, with raisin, graphite, and plum, spice, cassis.

At this point starved, we had a late dinner at La Marais, along with Isaac, Yossie, and two folks from 67 wine.

Thanks for your post, David. Everything about the evening was a success, although the caterer executed on only about 50% of our menu. The rest of the menu was a bait and switch relative to what we asked for. Such is life. We will go trhough as many caterers as necessary until we find one who understands our vision and gives us exactly what we ask for, not only in terms of the food but also the set up. But all in all, it was very nice.

A special thanks to Isaac C for dedicating so much of his time to help plan the event, including the food aspects, most of which unfortunately wasn't properly executed on by the caterer.

Also thanks to Seth and Nelly for embracing the concept and carrying it out to fruition.

And a special shot out to Yossie H, who quite admirably tasted every single wine for the entire 3 hours, taking copious notes in the most serious and professional manner. Wow.

I am so glad that David Raccah and others with whom I spoke at the event share my view that there are SO many excellent kosher wines out there on the market today, no matter what vintage and from what winery.

I'd love to get more people involved with the next event, so please PM me if you are interested in participating.

What seems to be the love affair with "green", David? I guess you're too young to remember when wines were not overripe and most reds had vegetal as well as fruity notes. This is just the pendulum swing back to the old days, pre-'95, when Parker was just gaining traction instead of the be-all and end-all, and only a few wines were 14+ % alcohol, and dealcoholization was just in its infancy. You're going ape-shit about back to normal, rather than the noble experiment gone awry. Get a grip (grin).

I had a good time last night. IT was nice to meet many of the forumites for the first time. The wine selection, at least for an Israeli tasting, was great. I was expecting a little more variety from the food but what was there was very good. I would have liked the food to have been as much of a highlight as the wine. I tasted around 30 wines. For me the best wine was the 08 Katzrin. Very different than the 07. The 07 was almost undrinkable for me being so sweet and fruity. The 08 tastes more like the older vintages. The 09 Castel GV was amazing too. All of the wines I tasted were good but few stood out as interesting to me. One of the exceptions was the Recanati Wild Carignan. Very unique and appealing to me. I feel left out on the Gvaot Pinot. Seemed like good Pinot but nothing exceptional to me. The Rogov brandy was a great finish to the night.

I agree with the folks who already posted that this was a very nice event. For me the best part was a carefully curated selection of wines (kudos to Adam, Issac & Pinchas), with most of the higher end and better wines available and, just as important, knowledgeable folks representing each of the various importers/distributors who were available to provide information on the wines. Also enjoyable was spending time with multiple forumites including David, Elie, Elchonon, Marc, Andrew, Adam, Menachem and Issac (although time was short given the number of wines I wanted to taste and I only managed 50 wines...

The best wines for me (I didn't taste a bunch that I had recently tasted) were the Katzrin 08 (which I had poured when I got there and allowed to develop in a glass over 45 minutes - to an hour - A-M-A-Z-I-N-G), Yarden Heightswine 08, Yatir Forest 09, Dalton Reserve Shiraz, Castel GV 09, Bravdo Coupage 10 and I was really happy to finally get the chance to taste the 2006 Domaine Roses Camille. Somehow I missed the 07 Cave this time (need to chat with Shlomo about that ). The Hevron Heights wines are definitely improving and Happy Hearts is doing a good job with them but they need better label management and to work on consistency...

While I realize that the event wasn't meant for hard core tasting, but rather an upscale environment for some high-end food and wine (which it managed successfully), my few suggestions for improving the next event are as follows:

(a) Start on time. VIP portion was called for 7 and, at the very least, everyone should have been ready to go at 7. It didn't seem like adequate preparation had been made for the wines with many distributors coming late, not enough room to set up the wines and wines not ready to be tasted for a while.(b) Food. While most people were eating and drinking from the start, if the event is supposed to be from 7:30-10:30, you can't run out of food at 8:30...(c) Missing. Noticeably absent (due to size or quality) from the event were Ella Valley, Tzora, Tulip and Flam who should be included next time. Also missing were Tabor & Tishbi, although how much of a loss that was I leave to everyone's personal view...

All is all, a tremendous first effort, great fun, well worth the money and looking forward to the next one although next time I might want to rethink having the Duck Confit, Spicy Lamb Chili, Waygu Sliders and Pave de Thon (seared Tuna) and at 12:30 AM after tasting 60 wines and drinking another ten or so...

Yossie - You are absolutely right on all of your comments. And I am all for including the other wineries you mentioned, with the exception of Flam and Tulip as I personally don't find their current kosher wines to be good values (thus we excluded them; for the others it's just a matter of coordinating with the relevant distributors, which is easy enough to do).

It was a fabulous event! Thanks to all the organizers. I'd love to help out any way I can next time, especially if it gets me an invite to the VIP part .

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate fully as my kid fell in school and broke his arm so I spent the evening/night in the ER, but my wife was kind enough to relieve me for 2 hours so that I could stop by. I was rushing and my palate wasn't cooperating (the food was finished by the time I got there so nothing to relieve my palate or tame my hunger) so I didn't have a great tasting experience but I did enjoy--as much as I could--some amazing wines so I'll give my overall impressions. 2 prefaces: 1) As David said, the general quality of the wines poured was WAY better than at last week's event. 2) No one cares what I write so I don't have to be PC.

The A list:

'08 Yarden Katzrin: Unfortunately, I'm not as smart as Yossi and was afraid to leave my wine around (I tried hiding the Rogov brandy that Adam so generously poured me but it was gone when I got back ) so I didn't get the full measure of this exceptional wine, which of course was quite closed, but after some vigorous swirling, the wine began to open up layer after layer after layer. This is definitely one of the best wines I've ever had. Deep smoky chocolate really stood out with tons of black fruit.

Once again the Gvaot PN wasn't just k'noach b'doro at the KWS tasting, but held its own against the incredible wines served last night. I'm really glad I snagged 4 bottles, and hope to find more!

The super-talented Weiss brothers outdid themselves with the new Bro.Dieux. Delicious black and blue wine--tons of blackberry and blueberry, with nice acidity and a hit of the vegetal--truly a delicious Bordeaux on steroids (this being California after all). I love it.

The '06 DRC was incredible and completely different than anything I've ever tasted before, which made it that much more interesting. (I get much more excited over a wine that's different than just a great wine that's more of the same.) The nose SCREAMED raspberry and the silky, oaky tannins gave mouth-coating a whole new meaning. Very fruity with more raspberry and cassis on the palate but restrained. A crazy long slightly sweet finish leaves you craving more. A seriously sexy, lush wine. I guess not everyone will like it (apparently several forumites haven't) but you must try it for yourself as it's unlike anything else out there, leaving nothing to really compare it against.

Now the A- list:

'10 Psagot CF was green and yummy.'09 Gush Etzion CF was a bit less green and more spicy. Very well done.'09 Tzuba Metzuda knocked it out of the ballpark. A very Israeli blend that goes up comfortably against any of the big boys (Yatir Forrest, Castel GV) I'd score it A- to A. A wine that will cellar well and great QPR. I intend to stock up on this. '09 Yatir Cab was nice as always but not a particularly strong vintage for this wine. Still an A-'07 Yarden Odem merlot was very nice. Solid A-'01 Yarden Merlot Magnum was absolutely delicious. Some were heard complaining that it's sweet and overripe but I thought the tannins held it all together quite nicely. This is a classic Yarden merlot from one of the best vintages ever--if you like Yarden Merlot, you'll love this. (Unfortunately, the Yarden merlot has gone downhill since the fabulous '03 vintage, as they began using their best fruit for the SV series.)

A little clarity regarding the "VIP" session. It was never part of the original plan and only sprung up by the event organizer on Sunday afternoon in order to recruit the remaining 15 or so guests necessary to allow us to meet our minimum quota. We never would have had this "quota" issue if we didn't start advertising this just two weeks ago in the dead of the end of the summer. But such is life (absolutely no one to blame here, it's just the function of the belatedness with which we all started discussing the event). It was an act of desparation that 15- or so people who were needed to meet a quota were offered an additional enticement by the event coordinator to purchase a ticket (for the same price as everyone else, I might add). This is not something I would want to repeat, for one b/c the extra time was needed to finish setting up the room. My view is that a small 100-150 gathering like this should all be allowed to enter at the same time. There was enough wine for everyone (with some very small exceptions, which is common in all such events); and, with the right caterer, there should also be enough food.

Repeat again, awesome event. I love how mr. Non pc here is not nitpicking at all, but really who cares. I had a great steak after the event and I had great wines at the event. For those who really wanted food and wine, then yeah maybe an issue. For me, insanely worth coming from ca and would do it again in a heart beat!

Remember this was put together in a span of three weeks! Are you kidding me! This screams out he star power of Adam and the rest of the gang along with he effort put in. This was on par or maybe better than Gotham, pc off, only because it showcased ecceptional wines and not just great and mediocre wines. It lacked a VIP tasting like Gotham has, which makes Gotham the winner of all events to me, but still, what an event with a broad swath of Israeli wines to enjoy!

Hey,If David gets in trouble for his PC, I think i'll get lynched, as the ultimate "speaks his mind guy"

Preface: I flew in from miami, was looking forward to seeing every one, a culinary delight and tasting great wines.

I came late much to my regret, got there at 8, I wanted to ignore the food but seeing at the rate it was disappearing I had to grab..Im not upset, but I was after all looking forward to a really good gourmet dinner..

I was looking for david racca, and I asked a importer and the guy standing next to me whips out a card which identifies him as david raccah lol

Like Eli, I dont spit the wine out, I just feel it should be drunk.. and I did knock myself out

Lets see, starting with port, all 3 ports I tasted were a failure to me, they tasted like a really sweet wine as if someone poured honey in it.. wasent at all enjoyable.. kinor david once again remains the only good port ive had (i know tura has one but i havent tried it)

Continued A- List:The Yiron '09 was another great vintage of what's consistently one of Israel's best wines at a great price pointThe '08 Galil Mountain Meron was showing even nicer than the Yiron, with loads of blueberry.I didn't spend much time at the Happy Hearts table after tasting so much of their wines last week, but they had some really great wines that were not at the KWS event:All of the Bravdo wines are fabulous and score A- (or just short of it), with the exceptional coupage coming in at A- to A.Tasted the Ohr Haganuz Special Reserve '09 CS again and my love for it last week wasn't a fluke. Solid A-.I really wanted to try the Limited as I loved the previous vintage (when it was known as the Alfasi--apparently the Chilean Alfassi winery wasn't thrilled with that), but there wasn't any when I got there. Not sure if it made it to the tasting and ran out or never made it at all.The Gvaot Herodian CS and Merlot were both quite nice--showing even better than last week--and either an A- or awfully close to it. I didn't like the Dance blend as much.Shilo Legend was showing delightfully, as wast the awesome '09 Shilo Shor Barbera. Very interesting wine unlike anything else out there. (I didn't spend much time at the Royal table as I'd previously tasted almost everything being poured. The selection was fabulous though, with several of my favorites, such as the Yatir Forrest and Castel GV. I just didn't have too much time so I tried to focus on new wines.)

Some comments on random other wines:The unoaked Binyamina Chard and SB were very bright but not my cup of tea. I like bright fruit when the wine is crisp--like a Covenant SB. The '10 Castel C is more of the same. I haven't liked this wine in quite a few vintages already, but I suppose those who do like it will enjoy this as it's definitely better than the '09.The '07 Yatir blend doesn't have the unpleasant green olive notes of the '06 but it's a bland wine--it's fallen far from the glory days of the luscious '04 vintage.The Alexanders were showing nicely but not my style personally.The Psagot chardonnay wasn't bad. Certainly heavy oak here but that'll settle with a bit of time. Give this another 6 months at least and I think it may reach B+.As David pointed out, the Recanatis were tasting far better than at the KWS. Still not like the '09 vintage though.At Yarden, the '06 Kela Merlot was a big disappointment, as the '05 continues to be phenomenal. The '06 never quite came together and tastes hot and overripe. If anyone disagrees, I'd be happy to sell them a case. Don't get me wrong--it's still a decent wine, but nothing like the fabulous '05 and not really cellar-worthy.The regular Yarden merlot continues to decline, as it has since they began making the SVs, '03 being the last great vintage IMHO.I tried the Yarden CS but it was very closed and I simply didn't have the time to invest to get it to open up. The Yarden Syrahs seem to be following the merlots, as the '09 Syrah was rather sad compared to previous vintages. It seems like, aside from their iconic CS, they're putting all their efforts into SVs.The T2 was interesting. Not bad but I don't have enough experience with sweet wines to say anything educated. But I agree with Elchanan: none of the sweet wines poured comes close to the Kinor Dovid port.I compared the Dalton Estate Shiraz with their reserve, and found the Estate to be much better.Tried the Kadesh Barnea midbar and it was just as bad as their other wine. Stay far away.

A few general observations:1. I think a very big reason why the wines showed so much better last night than at KWS was the glasses used. Last night's event had pretty decent tasting glasses, while the KWS had crappy glasses that definitely weren't made for wine. Makes a world of a difference. Another element is temperature: The KWS event was held on a scorching day in a room with inadequate AC. Yesterday was nice and cool. The reds poured last night were a good few degrees cooler than at KWS, which makes a huge difference.2. As far as the food/wine pairing, I think this idea is doomed to failure. No caterer could execute on it. Firstly, it's impossible to pair foods by wine type when the wines are organized by distributor (which the distributors will insist on). Secondly, there are too many wines to "pair" with. It's enough to make anyone's head spin. My suggestion for next year is to make this the premier wine tasting and leave food pairing to KWS dinners. The fact is that this was the first-ever curated tasting of a broad variety of kosher wines. That's what made the event so fabulous. Why bother with the food? Just get some palate-cleansing snacks and be done with it. You can then market it as "Taste the 100 best kosher wines in the world" or something to that effect. (I do think less wines would be better--the better to emphasize the event's curated nature.

I also strongly disagree with the decision to omit Flam. Although their Classico is a bit overpriced and unexceptional, the blanc and rose are among the best (or the very best) in class. They certainly should've been included. And I have to ask: Why was Kadesh Barnea on the list??

An up and coming boutique winery whose absence was unfortunate is Tanya. They make some very nice, interesting wines and would've added to the variety.

Nitpicking aside, the event was simply fabulous. You had almost all the major distributors pouring only (or almost only) their very best wines. What more can you ask for? Yasher koach to all the organizers!

I am still on my PC watch, so no comments on Elie's comments other than the fact that red garden was missed. They import many wines including Tanya, Adir, and others. I hope hey are added for the next shindig. Also, I too felt that many of he Yarden wines have taken a step back, but again, that is my opinion! I am far happier with a creamy, green and chocolate black wine than a hot and overripe wine. Again, my two cents.

David- and Livni. Sounds like it was a great event well planned and executed. Wish I could have attended but had some health concerns with my dad and spent the last couple days shuttling between doctors at NYU.Hopefully next one!

Jet lag and hangover off, i'd like to post some thoughts, but I also need to work hmm ok..

As Eli said, the food is indeed tricky, its not that the food was not good, it was amazing. It did feel a bit like a shull kidush. My suggestions for next event (I will g-d willing fly in again if I can) to have separate area for wine and food and more dining like set up for the food area.

Why are aerator's not made available ? And Eli who is always on my case for using the wrong glasses to drink, there should be multiple wine glass styles ?

I did try to get notes from the forum on the wines to taste, although its been a hectic week, with booking the flight days before event, recovering from surgery, I was pretty clueless on which wines I wanted to try.. going more with the names I knew earlier I wanted like Gvaot and Bravdo, maybe next event we can have a "pre tasting notes" where the list includes notes by forumites on which wines we should try, what to look out for etc

I'll think of other stuff im sure, even though im ot PC, I am in no way saying this as a level of disappointment, I loved the event.. sad I missed some great wines though

I don't know of anyone running any major tasting who furnishes multiple wine glass styles. They furnish tasting glasses, and anyone wishing different should furnish those himself. Asided from the financials of the tasting, there are good reasons for not furnishing glasses designed for each individual wine style, most notably being that most people do not have multiple wine styles at home, so the best approximation of how the wine will taste at home is using a generic style of wine glass. Also, logistics play a part-- after washing wine glasses, they must get to the wines for which they were furnished, and this presents a problem for the staff of the tasting, assuring each wine has its optimal wine glass. Also, wine glasses are usually rented rather than purchased, and most rental companies do not have access to other than generic styled glassware. If purchased, that means several glasses per person, which of course runs into bucks.

Elchanan:A good quality generic tasting glass is just fine. The quality of the glasses is much more important than having multiple shapes. I really think the wines at the KWS showed MUCH worse due to the crappy glasses used. Having Riedels in multiple shapes is fun but certainly not necessary. What I do get on your case about is when you use a glass made for a specific varietal for something else. A pinot will really suffer if poured in a syrah glass and vice versa, but a good quality generic tasting glass is good for everything.